Charles Langat wins AJC Peachtree Road Race men’s elite division

Charles Langat won The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race’s men’s elite division Tuesday with a time of 27:43.

Tanzanian Gabriel Geay and Ethiopian Nimbret Melak finished second and third, respectively. Langat, Geay and Melak all finished at near identical times, officially recorded as 27:43. Race organizers later remarked that the finish may have been the closest in AJC Peachtree Road Race history.

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Langat, from Kenya, credited the win to being able to finish strong.

“The guys were so fast,” Langat said. “But when you have a good kick, you win the race.”

Langat is a first-time AJC Peachtree Road Race champion. This was his first time running the race, and he said it was more humid than most other races he runs. Of course, he doesn’t mind the humidity – especially when he wins.

“Last year, I went to Portugal, and it was also (very) humid, like this,” Langat said. “But I won (there, too).”

Andrew Colley was the top U.S. finisher, crossing the line in 13th place with a time of 28:47. A North Carolina native, Colley finished sixth in the AJC Peachtree Road Race in 2018.

Like Langat, Colley also battled with the humidity. The humidity at race time was over 90%. Colley is from the mountains of North Carolina, where he deals with less humidity, but said running in the Southeast still felt like home.

“I love the Southeast,” Colley said. “I was joking that I should come up here with my Appalachian mountain twang accent and represent the high country. It’s great being in the Southeast, and any time we’ve got a big race like Peachtree where I can represent my home crowd, I’m super pumped.”

Ben Blankenship was the second American, finishing 16th in his first AJC Peachtree Road Race.

Fellow American Elkanah Kibet finished in 20th, an impressive result for the 40-year old. It was the ninth time Kibet ran the race, not counting 2014, when he won the race’s overseas edition. Kibet, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army, was serving in Kuwait at the time.

The AJC Peachtree Road Race is the world’s largest 10K race. Over 50,000 people were expected to compete this year.